Dialect-Specific Modes Influence L2 Perception: Evidence from Chongqing Dialect-Standard Mandarin Learners of English

This study investigates the impact of bidialectalism on L2 perception, focusing on the role of activated dialect modes. Chongqing Dialect is a regional dialect spoken in Chongqing, located in southwestern China. One of its prominent features is the lack of distinction between /n/-/l/, whereas Standard Mandarin, China's official language, distinguishes between /n/ and /l/. In this study, twenty Chongqing Dialect-Standard Mandarin speakers completed identification and discrimination tasks for English word-initial consonants /n/-/I/ under both Chongqing Dialect and Standard Mandarin activation modes. Results show that dialect mode activation affects participants' perception of /n/ and /l/. Females outperformed males in perception tasks, and participants were more accurate in distinguishing /n/ and /l/ before the high vowel /I/. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the perceptual patterns of bidialectal speakers.